The Week

News

Denis Halliday and Scott Ritter both have seen and felt first-hand how 10 years of economic sanctions imposed on the Iraqi government by the United Nations has starved the people of the country instead of bringing down Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist Regime as intended.
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A classic rivalry, a confrontation of two head coaches with thirty five years of experience between them, a battle between two teams that combined to win 18 games last season, and a near comeback amidst raucous cheers on a cool, crisp autumn night.
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Twelfth-ranked California remained undefeated with a 2-1 victory over 10th-ranked Wake Forest Friday at the Wake Forest/Nike Invitational at Spry Stadium. Cal is 6-0 for the first time since opening the 1988 season with the same record, while the Deamon Deacons dropped to 4-2.
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SAN FRANCISCO — A Modesto auto mechanic said Friday he is devastated by the accidental shooting of his 11-year-old son by a veteran SWAT officer, and said he is innocent of the drug charge that led to the boy’s death and his own arrest during this week’s raid at their home.
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SAN FRANCISCO – A pair of surgeons affiliated with Stanford University are under investigation by the FBI to determine if they have committed fraud in Medicare billings or fudged accounts of surgical procedures for medical journals.
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SAN FRANCISCO – A pair of surgeons affiliated with Stanford University are under investigation by the FBI to determine if they have committed fraud in Medicare billings or fudged accounts of surgical procedures for medical journals.
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NEWARK, N.J. – Two lawsuits filed this week accuse the makers of the drug Ritalin and the American Psychiatric Association of encouraging overdiagnosis of behavioral disorders in children to boost sales of the drug.
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If a spectator walked in off the street into Thursday’s women’s volleyball game at Emery High School, the match they saw was unremarkable on the surface. The St. Mary’s team used better organization and communication to beat the energetic but hapless Emery squad in three straight games.
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The neighbors hate it, the City Council opposed it, an assemblymember is fighting against it – still, the Regents of the University of California voted unanimously Thursday to approve an Environmental Impact Report that permits the university to construct a new three-story building on a five-acre parcel at Oxford Street and Hearst Avenue.
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OAKLAND – Ralph Nader, the self-styled “patented underdog, available for license,” was in downtown Oakland Thursday urging unions across the nation to throw their support behind his presidential campaign.
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LOS ANGELES — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority negotiated with its bus and rail drivers Thursday as a midnight strike deadline loomed, raising the prospect of 450,000 people left without a means to get to work or move around the region.
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From the saltboxes that dot the northeastern shoreline to California’s ornate Victorians, wood shakes and shingles are part of America’s past. Whether the traditional square butt or the multipatterned fancy-cut variety, it’s hard to beat the beauty of this natural, textured siding.
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MODESTO — Police and prosecutors are investigating how an 11-year-old boy was accidentally shot in the back and killed by a veteran SWAT team member during a federal drug raid at his family’s home.
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LOS ANGELES — A judge refused Wednesday to allow a Santa Monica City Council candidate to list himself on the November ballot as a “peace activist” but urged him to appeal for a definitive ruling.
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LOS ANGELES — A former judge will plead guilty to federal corruption charges for having a secret sexual relationship with a defendant while presiding over a case against the woman’s husband, prosecutors said Thursday.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Wen Ho Lee spent his first hours of freedom celebrating at home with family and friends as the government defended its dogged prosecution of the Los Alamos nuclear scientist, saying it sought to protect national security.
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Thursday, Sept. 14

Friday, author and film critic, Jack Shaheen will present Arab Screen Images at the Fine Arts Cinema in Berkeley as part of the Fourth Annual Cinamyaat series. Using a compilation of film and television clips, Dr. Shaheen presents the development of misrepresentation of Arabs in American entertainment as well as current examples of positive efforts in film to counter this bias. This highly provocative presentation will be followed with an opportunity for audience members to ask questions.
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Last Thursday against Contra Costa Christian High, the St. Mary’s women’s volleyball team relied on their serves for an easy win. On Tuesday night against the El Cerrito Gauchos, a balanced attack enabled the Panthers to corral a three-set victory (15-3, 15-6, 15-9) and expand upon their undefeated record (4-0, 0-0).
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Cal’s receiving corps got a boost in their opener against Utah, as true freshmen Geoff McArthur and Chase Lyman made several outstanding catches and redshirt freshman James Smith showed that he can catch the ball after all. But that didn’t stop wideout recruit John Rust from verbally committing to play at Cal next year.
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SAN JOSE — Eight months after fleeing to the Caribbean to avoid charges that they stole $10 million from their insurance clients, a San Jose couple appeared in court for the first time and were each ordered held on $10 million bail.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Napster Inc. has told a federal appeals court in San Francisco that recording companies suing it for copyright violations are seeking “to kill or control a technology that is not theirs.”
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WHITTIER — Fearful that a proposal to sell only low-sulfur diesel fuel in Southern California will lead to fuel shortages, truck drivers and school districts called on officials Wednesday to kill the plan.
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FRESNO — Motel handyman Cary Stayner was convicted Wednesday of murdering a Yosemite naturalist in a deal that spares his life but guarantees he will never be free and never be able to tell his story.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nine months after he was branded a threat to national security and put in solitary confinement, Wen Ho Lee was set free Wednesday with an apology from a judge who said the government’s actions “embarrassed our entire nation.”
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NEW YORK — Harry Potter made the list. So did “The Catcher in the Rye” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The most popular children’s books? No. The ones adults most wanted removed from library shelves in the 1990s.
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For years, AC Transit employees have worked through thick and thin with management to keep service on the streets. Claudia Hudson, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 192, representing over 1800 AC Transit workers, says their dedication has not been rewarded. Already working since June without a contract, bus operators, maintenance workers and clerical workers represented by Local 192 voted 940-299 to reject AC Transit’s newest contract offers last Tuesday.
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Wednesday, Sept. 13

In a move that has catapulted the normally low-key Berkeley Police Association into the public arena, a strongly-worded letter sent by the association’s attorneys to Police Chief Dash Butler was also sent to the city manager and to the City Council, rendering the caustic document public.
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UC Berkeley and the Jose Marti National Library of Cuba proudly announce a unique and historic pact in which, retrieved from the depths of the Cuban archives, the University has received – grocery bags.
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SAN FRANCISCO — New restrictions that keep halibut gill nets farther from shore have the fishing industry wondering how it will make its catch and wildlife conservation groups cheering over potentially fewer wildlife drownings.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Consumer advocates told an appeals court Tuesday that the state is giving its blessing to insurance companies that violate a voter-approved measure to reduce auto insurance rates.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Motel handyman Cary Stayner has agreed to plead guilty to the murder of a Yosemite naturalist in a deal that will spare him a federal execution, but he still faces a possible death sentence if convicted of killing three sightseers.
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Tuesday, Sept. 12

If all goes as planned, the Berkeley Marina restaurants and hotel will be paying higher wages to their employees by Oct. 20. The Berkeley City Council is poised to expand its Living Wage Ordinance at tonight’s meeting, requiring established Marina businesses to pay their employees a minimum of $9.75
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A quick read-through of tonight’s City Council agenda is akin to looking at a Jackson Pollock painting. It’s as if the city’s issues were poured through a fan and splattered across 2,000 pages of paper – well, 631 to be exact. Undergrounding utilities contrasts sharply with the obligatory monthly renewal of needle exchange programs. Expanding the Living Wage Ordinance compliments a “buy Berkeley” campaign, billboard removal within the city limits, meets Berkeley police undergoing American Disabilities Act trainings. As with a Pollock painting, the underlying balance comes from the contrast, the incongruity, the arbitrary limit of the canvas itself, or in this case, the limited time constraints of the council meeting and the finite patience of the council members.
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Bay area Asian Americans today reacted with a mixture of anger and relief to news that jailed Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee might be freed, despite late word that a plea agreement had been postponed.
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SACRAMENTO — California is promising to spend at least $1.2 billion a year to create the nation’s biggest state scholarship program, covering college tuition for all low- and middle-income students with at least a C average.
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It takes a unique kind of passion to surround yourself every work day with serpents, tarantulas, lizards, hissing cockroaches as big as your thumb – and rats. Not to mention breeding some of the critters at your own home.
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Monday, Sept. 11

Last year, Cal’s defense was the most dominating in the Pac-10, but the offense, guided for much of the year by true freshman Kyle Boller, never got on track and held the team back from winning. This year appears to be different.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Residents east of an industrial plant in the Pittsburg area were asked to stay in their homes with the windows and doors closed for more than two hours Saturday morning, because of a yellow cloud sent into the air after a chemical reaction. No one was injured.
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SAN FRANCISCO — The Marin Independent Journal, a 40,000-circulation newspaper based north of San Francisco, could be bought by ANG Newspapers owner William Dean Singleton, according to a published report Saturday.
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SAN JOSE — With stock options, time shares and the high cost of living in Silicon Valley, divorces are no longer only about who gets the kids and the house. Now couples, attorneys and judges must figure out how to split stock options and how a single parent can afford to live in the area to be able to see the children.
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SACRAMENTO — California’s new Indian gambling compact is so vague and shrouded by secrecy that the state doesn’t know how many slot machines are on reservations or how much money each tribe has given the state.
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SAN FRANCISCO — The issue of which students are admitted to the University of California resurfaced Wednesday as UC President Richard Atkinson told regents he wants to evaluate new approaches to admissions in light of developments since the school scrapped affirmative action.
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